Putting ERA Aside for Other Concerns

The equal rights amendment may have gone down to defeat nearly three years ago, but women's push for equal treatment at home, on the job and in American society did not die with the unsuccessful constitutional amendment. Much of the energy once channeled into the drive to ratify ERA has been redirected toward women's economic issues: equal pay for women and men who hold different jobs of “comparable worth”; reforms in Social Security, insurance and pension laws to eliminate discrimination based on sex; and parental leave for child care plus improved day care for children.

The overriding issue is economic equity. For every dollar earned by the average working man in the United States, the average working woman earns 64 cents, according to Census Bureau figures. This disparity has remained roughly the same for more than 60 years. It persists despite the spectacular influx of women in the work force in recent years. Over half, 53.7 percent, now work, compared with 43 percent in 1970. The wage gap also has defied 20 years of affirmative action policies designed to remove discriminatory barriers in education, hiring and promotion of women and minorities.

Younger, well-educated women are making professional and economic gains, but many women are still financially insecure. Poverty increasingly is a “women's issue.” Of 9.9 million families headed by women, 36 percent were below the poverty line in 1983, up from 30.4 percent in 1979. The comparable figure for married-couple families was just 7.6 percent. Among black and Hispanic families headed by women, the poverty rate was 53 percent in 1983, compared with 16 and 18 percent respectively for married-couple families.